230 WILD ANIMAL CELEBRITIES 



face, saying he was inspired. There was a 

 moment's pause, and then the cobra, with 

 lightning-like rapidity, struck Girling across 

 the nose and between the eyes with his fangs, 

 leaving several punctures. Girling, with a 

 shriek, became sober in an instant, threw the 

 cobra back into its cage, and with the blood 

 streaming down his face, exclaimed, "I am 

 a dead man. ' ' 



Everything was done for him that was pos- 

 sible, but after the most terrible convulsions 

 he died before he had been in the hospital an 

 hour. 



Not so many years after this incident a 

 keeper in the Zoological Gardens in Dublin 

 was one day bitten by a large boa. The boa 

 was not poisonous but the man was so ter- 

 rified that he died within a few hours in 

 spite of the fact that several medical men 

 who were called to him assured him there was 

 no danger whatever. "Whether he thought 

 they were only telling him this to reassure 

 him, I do not know, but it was concluded after 

 his death that he had died simply from fright. 



